Getting Here From There
by FebWriter
Summary: A series of non-linear one-shots about Days of Our Lives Ciara Brady and Ben Weston. Cin shipper all the way.
1. Hospital Reunion

_**This fic is about the characters Ciara Brady and Ben Weston from Days of Our Lives. It's going to be a series of non-linear one-shots, some of which will diverge from canon whether by accident or design. This first one takes place after the cabin. Just as a heads-up, this fic is not friendly to Rafe or Claire, or really Tripp either. No, I'm a Cin shipper all the way.** _

* * *

When the door to her hospital room opened, Ciara closed her eyes and turned her head, not interested in the least in Rafe's smug hero act and condescending "There, there, overwrought little girl" platitudes, her mother's barely-controlled hysteria, or her Grandma Julie tearing Ben apart in a manner she usually reserved for the Hernandezes (though secretly, if Grandma Julie wanted to tear into Rafe for his "rescue" of her at the cabin, Ciara would have enjoyed that) while Grandpa Doug tried to rein her in.

Honestly, where did the women in her family get off thinking her time with Ben at the cabin was dangerous? She didn't know all the stories, but she knew enough to know that her mother, Grandma Julie, and even cousin Jen didn't **only** get involved with squeaky clean guys who would have bored them to death, or who didn't have a past, even a felonious past in some cases.

And she also **really** didn't want to hear more of Tripp's meaningless apologies, and she'd like to kick Claire in the face completely on purpose right about now. If Shawn was on his way here (her mother had mentioned something about calling him in the midst of her hysteria; after a while, Ciara had just tuned her out because it was just all too much), Ciara also didn't want to see him, partly because she was afraid he'd take Claire's side over hers, and partly because she didn't want to put her brother in a position where he felt he had to choose between her and his daughter, wannabe thot that Claire was. She wouldn't break Shawn's heart by informing him of Claire's true colors; let her expose herself to her father.

No, the **only** person she wanted to see right now was Ben...and her family had made sure she couldn't do that. She didn't even know where Ben was. She prayed he wasn't in jail, because he didn't belong in jail. He didn't even belong in the mental hospital. Their time together at the cabin had shown Ciara that Ben **was** the ex-serial killer, the changed man, he had said he was. Unlike a lot of people ( _how about you, for starters, Rafe_ , she thought bitterly), Ben **owned** what he had done. He knew it was wrong, it was horrible, it was evil, and he freely admitted it. But Ciara had learned enough about him to understand that there were reasons, terrible and sad reasons, that Ben had killed those people, had thought he had killed Will. And Will wasn't really dead. Will was back home and was getting to be more and more like his old self every day. And Ben **had** originally come back to Salem to tell everyone that Will was alive. But did anyone give him credit for that? Well, Dr. Evans, maybe; in addition to being Ben's therapist, she was Will's grandmother.

If Ben were truly the monster her mother and Grandma Julie and Idiot Rafe made him out to be, Ciara never would have it made it off the side of the road after wiping out on her bike. But when he found her, unconscious, bloodied, and with a broken leg, after being dumped in the middle of nowhere himself, he had carried her to the cabin, kept watch over her, splinted her leg, gone on foot for supplies, kept her fed, medicated, in touch with her mother thanks to that burner phone, and even washed her shirt for her, giving her one of his own shirts to wear while hers dried, and recovered admirably when she kicked him in the face while he was helping her with her sponge bath.

He had armed her against him. He had been so busy taking care of her that he had neglected to find a way to get his own medication, and before the hallucinations had completely swallowed him whole, he had begged her to go outside. "It's not safe for you to be around me now!" he insisted. Although she had taken hold of the knife he had given her, and she had since laid aside, when Ben began to spiral out of mental control, when he had taken himself to the furthest corner of the cabin and curled in on himself in a ball in that corner, she put the knife down again, knowing that no matter how bad things got, he wasn't going to hurt her.

"You didn't leave me when I really needed you, Ben. I'm not leaving you now," Ciara had insisted.

"I can't take the chance of hurting you!" Ben screamed. "Ciara...dammit, I hate this, hate myself. Get out! For your own good, I'm sorry, I know your leg...You gotta go. **NOW!** "

But she wouldn't go. Somehow, she knew that Ben wouldn't hurt her, no matter how bad the hallucinations tormenting him might get, and she had been right about that.

And somewhere in the middle of trying to reach him through the fog of the hallucinations he was fighting against with everything in him, Ciara realized that Ben was the one person that she really could trust not to hurt her.

Which, of course, had been when Rafe burst in and ruined everything. The idiot hadn't paid any attention to her splinted leg, and she could admit now, if only to herself, that not all of the tears that leaked out of her eyes when Rafe jostled her while hauling her out of the cabin to the waiting ambulance had been because of the pain shooting through her broken leg. He'd left uniformed officers to deal with Ben, and Ciara had been screaming at them that Ben needed his medication, that they needed to call Dr. Evans, not to be rough with Ben, not to hurt him. But her words had gone unheeded. Her last sight of Ben was him surrounded by a wall of Salem PD officers. She may be stuck here overnight, but she was out of here first thing in the morning, signing herself out against medical advice if she had to, and the first thing she was going to do was find Ben.

"I know you're awake, Ciara."

Ciara opened her eyes and turned her head. The voice that had uttered that sentence belonged to her Aunt Kayla, her dad's sister. Indeed, there stood Kayla, still in her lab coat and scrubs, with a wheelchair. "They said in the ER I have to stay here overnight for observation," Ciara said.

"You do," Kayla agreed. "But I finally got your mother to go home, and Doug peeled Julie off the ceiling and got her out of here, so even though technically visiting hours are over, since you're not in traction, I thought we'd take a little trip a couple of floors down to see a friend of yours."

Ciara sat up in bed. "Ben's here?" she asked eagerly.

"He's staying here overnight too, while we get him stabilized," Kayla confirmed. "Marlena's been with him, and he keeps asking about you. And given your state when you came in, I know you're thinking about him." Kayla gave Ciara a bittersweet smile then, silently reflecting how much like her father Ciara was. "So hop in."

"Why are you really doing this?" Ciara asked as she settled herself in the wheelchair.

"Honestly? Because you remind me of someone I knew years ago," Kayla replied as she pushed Ciara's wheelchair out of the room and to the elevator. "She spent a lot of time with this guy that everyone, especially her brother, thought was bad news. He looked a certain way, and he had a certain attitude, a certain kind of past. In fact, she later found out that this guy originally showed up in her life to stalk her."

"He stalked her?" Ciara asked. "Why?"

"Well, first it was because he was trying to get back at her brother. See, he knew her brother, but he didn't know her. He scared her so much that she moved back home to be near her parents and siblings," Kayla said as they reached their floor and she pushed Ciara's wheelchair off the elevator and down the hall. "He followed her back to her hometown. By then, he was working for someone else, someone who also had a bone to pick with her brother, but he was always around when she was, and he unnerved her, outright scared her at first, actually...but then she got to know him. She got to see the **real** man inside, not just the rough facade he put out there for the world to see. He'd had a lot of bad breaks growing up. He'd done things before he ever met her that he wasn't proud of. But deep down, behind the pain, behind his past, he was a good man. She learned this was true the night he saved her brother, the very same man he hated, and got hurt himself in the process, but didn't call any attention to his own injuries until he literally collapsed, and he didn't want any praise or credit for saving this man he claimed to hate, either. Then, when he got beaten pretty badly himself after that, she found him, and she took care of him. And that was a big turning point for them. And the more they got to know each other, the more time they spent together, the more they were able to trust each other. And what other people thought of them spending time together...in the end, it didn't matter, because she knew the real him, and he knew the real her."

Kayla stopped outside a closed door. "Here we are," she said. She moved to open the door, but Ciara calling her name stopped her.

"Whatever happened to them? Do you know?" Ciara asked.

Kayla smiled. "I do," she replied. "They fell in love, got married, had a daughter, were torn apart for many years, found each other again, got married again, had a son, lost each other, found each other again and got married yet again. And I know this because I was that girl, Ciara, and your Uncle Steve? He was the guy. And the man he saved was my brother Bo...your dad."

Ciara's jaw dropped. "You understand," she breathed.

"I understand," Kayla replied. "Of course, I'm in a position to be more understanding than your grandparents right now. As for Hope..." She trailed off. "Are you ready to see Ben? Because he's been ready to see you for hours now."

"Oh yeah," Ciara said. She smoothed her hands through her hair while Kayla opened the door.

Ben was sitting up in his hospital bed, Dr. Marlena Evans seated at his bedside. They had been talking, but they stopped when Kayla wheeled Ciara into the room and cheerfully announced, "You have a visitor, Mr. Weston."

Ben's eyes lit with happiness when he saw Ciara. "Ciara," he said, part happiness, part relief.

Kayla wheeled Ciara to the side of Ben's hospital bed opposite Marlena, and then the two doctors exchanged a look. "We'll give you two some time alone," Marlena replied as she stood up. Then she and Kayla left the room, and Ben and Ciara were alone together for the first time since Idiot Rafe and his commando raid on the cabin.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked anxiously, seeing that Ciara's leg was now in a cast.

"I'm fine," Ciara replied. "Or I will be. You saved my leg, according to the orthopedist. Just a cast, no surgery or hardware needed."

Ben let out a breath Ciara hadn't been aware he was holding. "Good," he said.

"I am **really** sorry about Rafe and the police," Ciara said. "Are **you** okay? I was **screaming** at the cops to call Dr. Evans and get your medication and not to hurt you, but they didn't act like they heard me."

"Somebody did," Ben replied. "I was restrained in an ambulance, but when I...came back to myself...I was here," he gestured around him, "and Dr. Evans was here with me, and she made sure I got my meds, and we've talked. I've been frantic trying to find out about you. Dr. Evans told me you were here and you were in good condition, but I needed to see you for myself to really believe it. As for the cops, your mom's the commissioner. It's not like I wasn't expecting her to find us eventually. It's not your fault, Ciara. I'm the one who owes you a million apologies for losing it like that back at the cabin. I know I scared you, and I hate myself for that."

"Don't you dare!" Ciara exclaimed. "Ben, you were so busy taking care of me that you forgot to take care of yourself! My mother and that APB didn't make things any easier for you. You needed your medication and you didn't have it."

"Yeah, Dr. Evans gave me a very stern talking-to about that," Ben replied sheepishly. "All I can do is tell you what I told her: I won't make that mistake again."

"You'd better not," Ciara said seriously, "or I'll have to kick you in the face again. And you know I can do it even with one leg broken." Ciara lifted her good leg and wiggled the foot, making Ben laugh, which made her laugh.

"Okay, okay, I don't want to lose any teeth," Ben said. "I promise, I will take care of myself and make sure I keep my prescription filled and take my medication as directed from now on." His smile faded then. "I'm still sorry I scared you."

"Ben, once I realized it was the hallucinations, I was scared **for** you, not scared **of** you," Ciara said. His hands were folded in his lap, and Ciara reached out one of her hands and rested it on top of Ben's folded hands. "You were trying to get me to go outside, to leave you in the cabin alone, because you were afraid you'd hurt me, do you remember that?"

"Yeah," Ben replied, "but you, Miss Stubborn, you wouldn't go."

"You didn't leave me when I needed you," Ciara replied. "I wasn't going to leave you when you needed me."

They were silent for a moment, just looking at each other. "What happens now?" he asked. "Everyone but you and Dr. Evans...and I guess Dr. Johnson...still wants to see me ridden out of town on a rail, and it's not like they don't have good reasons to feel that way."

"I don't care what they think," Ciara declared, thrusting her chin in the air. "This isn't about them. It's about you and me. You're one of the only people in my life who doesn't push me or judge me...even when I judge myself. You are so much more than your past mistakes, Ben."

"You and Dr. Evans are the only people who think so," Ben replied. He was grateful he wasn't hooked up to a heart monitor, because he could feel his pulse rapidly pounding, the result of Ciara's hand resting on top of his.

"Well, that's a start, isn't it?" Ciara challenged.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Ben agreed. "But your family-"

"Needs to be grateful that you saved me," Ciara interrupted.

"I don't see that happening," Ben replied.

"Okay, neither do I," she agreed. "My family...most of my family...will be a gigantic buzzkill. They're gonna try to keep us from seeing each other. They're gonna hate you. They're gonna give us nothing but trouble. But **I** trust you. And I liked being with you at the cabin. And I want to spend more time with you. And it's not because I'm rebelling, and it's not because of Stockholm Syndrome. Ben, I want to spend more time with you because I want to get to know you better, and I want you to get to know me better. I'll understand if you don't want to deal with my family, and I'll respect that. But I really hope you won't cut me out of your life now that we're back in Salem."

Ben moved his hands out from under Ciara's hand, sending disappointment more acute than the pain in her leg when Idiot Rafe hauled her out of the cabin flooding into the pit of her stomach…

...until Ben took her hand in one of his and just held it. "I don't want to cut you out of my life, Ciara," he told her. "You're the only non-psychiatrist I can be myself with who knows it's for real, and not an act." The smile on her face was so radiant, Ben would later swear that in that moment, he felt his heart turn over in his chest.

And out in the hall, after looking through the window into Ben's hospital room, two doctors, two women who had deeply and passionately loved two complex, flawed but ultimately golden-hearted men for most of their adult lives, exchanged a look.

Marlena said, "They don't have any idea what they're in for."

"Not really, no," Kayla agreed. "And in terms of people being supportive, I'd say you and I are it."

"I agree," Marlena replied. She looked back at Ben and Ciara, and Kayla followed her gaze. Ben and Ciara were holding hands, and Ben said something that made Ciara laugh, which made Ben smile in return.

"God help them," Kayla said. "And Hope and Shawn-Douglas and Doug and Julie, because..." She trailed off, knowing that Marlena could finish the thought herself.

"Do they remind you of Bo and Hope too? Way back at the very beginning?" Marlena asked.

"Yes," Kayla replied, "among others."

Marlena nodded. "Well, if family history is anything to go by here, Ben and Ciara are in for quite a ride," she mused.

"We all are," Kayla reflected before she went to get Ciara and take her back to her own room.

"See you tomorrow?" Ciara asked Ben before Kayla took her back to her room.

"I promise," Ben assured her. When Ciara looked back over her shoulder in the doorway of Ben's room, Ben raised his right hand, which was still warm from holding her hand, and smiled at her. She smiled back, and then Kayla took her back to her room, while Ben leaned back against the pillow and clasped his hands behind his head, still smiling.


	2. Workout Buddies

_**Thank you to those who are reading, following, and favoriting. I hope you enjoy.**_

* * *

As relieved as she was to have her cast off at last, working to rebuild her leg muscles could have been very boring for Ciara, given the seemingly endless number of repetitions she was required to do on the weight machines with her leg.

Luckily, she had a workout buddy: Ben Weston, who, at this very moment, was just across the way, perfectly within her line of sight, doing another of his own seemingly endless series of hanging knee raises.

Having seen Ben with his shirt off when they were at the cabin, albeit briefly, Ciara knew that he was ripped. That brief glimpse of his bared torso made hormones Ciara wasn't even aware she possessed stand up and cheer. It was a normal, healthy, purely female reaction, which had relieved her just as much then as having her cast off did now.

The complicated part—not for her, but for everyone else, including Ben—was that Ciara didn't **just** like what she'd seen of Ben's body. She liked Ben as a person. She liked Ben as a man. Aside from Dr. Evans, Ciara knew she was the only person who saw the real Ben Weston, saw the man he was trying to become. And more than that, Ciara had faith in Ben that he would become that man someday.

Knowing that he didn't see her as damaged goods when literally everyone else in her life did to some extent was a big part of what drew Ciara to Ben. She didn't have to pretend with him, and he didn't have to pretend with her. He didn't push or judge her, and he opened up to her about himself at the most unexpected of times, but she felt honored that he trusted her enough to open up to her about his past.

She was checking Ben out as he hung from the pullup bar, but subtly. He obviously took exercise very seriously. He had to be on at least his twelfth set of reps, his plain gray t-shirt soaked through with sweat as he drew his knees to his chest yet again, the black basketball shorts he wore showing off his calves. Ciara idly wondered if it was possible to be both a chest woman **and** a leg woman. A Boston Red Sox baseball cap kept sweat from his hair and scalp from dripping down into Ben's eyes.

Leg lifts were boring under the best of circumstances, and Ben, eager for any reason to spend more time with Ciara, had happily offered to be her workout buddy so that she wouldn't have to do all that boring work by herself. And although she was being subtle about it, Ben knew that Ciara was checking him out. He'd seen the look on her face at the cabin when she had seen his torso while he was changing his shirt. Then he had been apologetic, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, although even then, uncomfortable was the last thing she had been. She had been surprised, but pleasantly so; intrigued, which made him think she had never seen a shirtless guy with a torso like his; and, although he still wasn't sure how much of this was him projecting his own wishful thinking, appreciative in a female way. Not that she looked at him as a piece of meat; no, although he had at least a million things left to learn about Ciara Brady, and wanted the chance to learn every one of them, he knew somehow that Ciara, while she clearly liked what she had seen of his body, wasn't the kind of girl who would be interested in him only for his body. And as someone who had gone through all his life so far with only his sister and his psychiatrist truly interested in him as a person, having Ciara's interest was nothing less than a gift, as far as Ben was concerned...a gift he would do everything in his power to be worthy of receiving.

He decided, when he finished the last of his reps, to show off just a little bit for Ciara, and he drew his knees up to his chest, then flipped himself up and over the bar before sticking a perfect landing on both of his feet on the mat below him. The look of subtle female appreciation in Ciara's eyes flared into surprise, and then into being impressed.

Ciara didn't take her eyes off Ben as he wiped his sweaty face with his t-shirt sleeve, then headed to the nearby bench where he had left a small towel and two bottles of water. After wiping his face with the towel, he cracked open one of the bottles of water and drained half of it in two gulps.

Ciara would swear the temperature in the gym shot up at least thirty degrees in that moment.

Ben then approached Ciara with the other, unopened bottle of water. After one more rep, she rose from the bench and gratefully accepted the water bottle. "Thanks," she said before opening it and taking a long drink herself.

"It's important to stay hydrated," Ben replied, watching as she drank and thinking that the long column of her neck looked graceful. "Where to next?"

"Steps," Ciara said with an eyeroll. "I get to step up and down on a little box for the next half hour." She paused, then asked, "You wouldn't want to provide me with some motivation, would you?"

"What kind of motivation?" Ben asked.

"Well, what are you gonna do next?" Ciara asked.

"Work on that punching bag over there," Ben replied, gesturing to the heavy bag across the room.

Ciara gauged the distance from the heavy bag to where she'd be doing her steps. "You're gonna be checking me out while I'm doing my steps," she said.

"Kinda like how you were checking me out when I was doing all those hanging knee raises," he confirmed.

Ciara bit her lip and ducked her head somewhat shyly, but half a second later, she looked up to meet Ben's gaze and owned it. "Okay, yes, I was checking you out. I mean, have you **seen** yourself mid-workout?"

"A few times," Ben said with a smile. Then he got serious. "Do you want me to not check you out, Ciara? Because-"

"It's not that," she interrupted him. "I just...I'm still getting used to this, I guess." At Ben's tilted head and quizzical expression, she added, "You checking me out. I've never been a girl that guys looked twice at."

"You must have gone to school with a bunch of idiots," Ben said. He paused, then said, "It's not just about how you look, Ciara. Although I have to say, I do like the tank top and shorts you're wearing right now. But that's not all it is. That could never be all it is. It's who you are. As a person, I mean." He took off his Red Sox cap and ran a hand through his sweaty hair nervously. "I'm probably not saying this right. It's not...I'm not used to this, either. I—You're a very important person in my life, Ciara. And I just...I like looking at you, no matter what you're doing or what you're wearing, because I'm looking **at you**."

The smile Ciara gave Ben in response lit her entire face and made her eyes shine brighter than the sun. "Okay, go whale on your punching bag," she told him, "if you can keep your eyes off me long enough to concentrate."

Now Ben smiled. "It'll be tough, but I'll manage," he replied.

"We'll see," Ciara said.

Ben's workout with the heavy bag wasn't nearly as intense as it was when he worked with the bag alone, since he kept looking over to watch Ciara as she stepped up and down on the box, but he still managed to get a small amount of solid work in, and a lot of Ciara watching, so he counted it a win-win situation.


	3. The Original Badass

_**Alice Horton, Ciara's great-grandmother, was a total badass. She really did help Bo break Roman Brady (the original Roman Brady, played by Wayne Northrop, because this was in 1983) out of jail and got arrested herself for it. And when everyone else was against them, Alice Horton was pretty much the sole source of emotional support for both Bo and Hope, and Jack and Jennifer. And no matter how many times those two couples broke up, Alice was still always on their side, because she knew right from the start that they belonged together. I still wanted her to have a part in Ciara and Ben's story though, if only in fanfic, because I know she'd be on their side if she were here, so I came up with this.**_

* * *

"Okay," Ciara said, "here we are."

Ben looked around, confused. "In the Horton Town Square?" When Ciara had asked if she could take him somewhere and show him something, he had happily agreed, because he was always up for spending time with Ciara, doing anything. But she had seemed excited, and Ben didn't see what there was to get excited about regarding the town square.

"Yes," Ciara said. "But specifically, we're here for this." She gestured toward the plaque engraved with the smiling faces of a pair of senior citizens, which proclaimed "HORTON TOWN SQUARE" above the couple's picture, and beneath it, "IN LOVING MEMORY OF TOM AND ALICE HORTON," and she explained, "They're my great-grandparents on my mom's side. I'm named after Great-Gran. My middle name is 'Alice.'"

Ben looked from the plaque to Ciara and back again. "Was she the donut lady?" he asked, recalling her story about her great-grandmother's donuts when they were at the cabin together.

"Yeah," Ciara said with a smile. There was a gleam in her eyes that said there was more to the story, though. "But Alice Horton wasn't some meek little housewife who made donuts. She was the original family badass."

Ben looked at the likeness of Alice Horton engraved in the plaque. "Her?" he asked, gesturing.

"Yes!" Ciara exclaimed triumphantly. "My Uncle Roman was accused of being the Salem Slasher, and Great-Gran helped my dad break him out of jail. Then she got arrested."

Ben's eyes widened, and then he looked at Alice's picture on the plaque again. "HER?" he asked, shocked.

Ciara grinned. "Her," she replied proudly. "You can ask Marlena if you don't believe me. She was married to my Uncle Roman at the time. He didn't do it. Dad knew that, and he and Great-Gran always had a special relationship, and she thought a lot of Marlena and Uncle Roman too, so she helped Dad break Uncle Roman out of jail, and then she got arrested for it."

"I believe you," Ben assured her. Alice Horton didn't look like a badass, but anyone who would aid in a jailbreak couldn't be anything but a badass, as far as Ben was concerned, and clearly, as far as Ciara was concerned as well. "I think I would have liked your great-grandmother."

"I know she would have liked you," Ciara replied. "That's what the rest of my family...well, except my Aunt Kayla on my dad's side...seems to be forgetting. Great-Gran was **always** getting involved in adventures and misadventures and schemes with my mom and dad when they were young, and my cousin Jen and her husband Jack even before they got married the first time."

"What did your great-grandfather think about that?" Ben asked.

"Sometimes he got involved right along with her, sometimes he bailed her out. With the Uncle Roman thing, I'm thinking it helped that one of their sons was a lawyer. My Great-Uncle Mickey," Ciara continued. "Great-Gran...She always saw the best in people, no matter who they were or what they had done in the past. She could look at you and see who you **really** were."

"A trait her namesake great-granddaughter has inherited," Ben reflected.

"I know my family is-" Ciara began.

Ben interrupted her. "I don't expect your family to approve of me," he said. "It's enough for me that you trust me and believe me, Ciara."

"I just want you to know that there's someone on my mom's side of the family that would have liked you and given you a fair chance," Ciara replied. "I wish you could have met her."

"I wish I could have too," Ben said, "so I could have told someone who would believe it that I care about you and I'll do whatever it takes to be worthy of your trust and faith in me."

Ciara took Ben's hands in hers and squeezed them. "I believe you," she assured him.

He smiled. "That's all that really matters," he said. But then he looked up. "Mrs. Horton? My name is Ben Weston, and your great-granddaughter Ciara Brady...She makes me want to be a better man, and she's my rockstar. And I will never hurt her. If I ever break that promise, I expect you to haunt me."

"She'd do it too," Ciara murmured. Then she looked up. "You really would like Ben, Great-Gran. You would have been there for us like you were for Mom and Dad, and for Jen and Jack."

At that exact moment, a slight breeze blew across the square, rustling the late-summer leaves on the trees, lifting Ciara's hair from her shoulders, and gently ruffling Ben's hair. Ciara and Ben looked at each other wide-eyed, then looked back at the plaque with her great-grandparents' pictures on it.

Ciara's smile was radiant, and made Ben's heart skip a beat. "I knew Great-Gran would approve of us," she said.

Ben smiled back at her. _I won't let you down, Mrs. Horton_ , he silently vowed.

As Ciara and Ben left Horton Town Square hand in hand, Ciara, still smiling, had only one thought:

 _Thanks, Great-Gran._


	4. Baby, We Were Born to Run

_**I know it's been a while, but I was in need of inspiration for the next chapter. And then we got a certain spoiler pic on Twitter that led to this. I hope you enjoy it. I'll warn you up front, it's not Tripp-friendly, and probably not everything that Shawn-Douglas does in this chapter would happen on the show, but at least a little of it is probably within the realm of possibility.**_

* * *

Ciara drove very carefully from the loft to the police station. Ben had _**just**_ fixed and reassembled her dad's motorcycle, after every garage in town had told her it couldn't be done, and she wasn't about to wipe out and hurt herself and demolish her dad's beloved bike _**again**_ because of Tripp and Claire.

When she had walked into the loft and caught Tripp and Claire kissing again, and Tripp's hands high enough on Claire's back that it looked to Ciara like he was just about to undo Claire's bra through her dress, that had been the last straw.

"Oh, am I interrupting? Should I come back later? Maybe you'd like to put a sock on the front door so I know not to come in!" Ciara exclaimed angrily and sarcastically.

Tripp jumped as he pulled away from Claire, nearly knocking Claire to the ground in the process. Claire was pale, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, and she just stared at Ciara, unable to say anything, because she knew she and Tripp had been caught outright again, and there was no defense for it. None that Ciara would buy, anyway.

"Ciara, it's not what it looks like-" Tripp began.

"DON'T!" Ciara shouted. "Don't lie to me, Tripp! It is EXACTLY what it looks like!" She looked at Tripp disgustedly. "You don't want me, Tripp. Any girl will do, as long as you can get sex."

"I told you I would wait for you," Tripp said defensively. "I'm waiting."

"And you didn't think I'd mind you getting naked with Claire, shoving your tongue down Claire's throat, feeling Claire up, while you were waiting for me to be ready?" Ciara said. "God, I am SUCH a fool!" Her gaze shot to Claire. "I would hope at least YOU can be honest with me this time, Claire. You're attracted to Tripp, aren't you?" Claire opened her mouth, but said nothing. "Dammit, Claire, don't I deserve the truth?" Ciara persisted.

"Yes!" Claire blurted. "Yes, I'm attracted to Tripp. Yes, I want to be with Tripp."

Ciara gave a quick, curt nod. "I thank you for your honesty, Claire," she said.

"Ciara, I still want you," Tripp said, walking towards her with his arms out.

Ciara shrank from his touch. "You get away from me!" she said.

"Tripp-" Claire began.

"Shut up, Claire, and stay out of this!" Tripp exclaimed.

"Hey, it's not **_entirely_** Claire's fault you can't keep your hands to yourself, or your lips off of her," Ciara said, moving further away from Tripp, as he continued his relentless advance.

"It didn't mean anything!" Tripp said.

"Yeah, it did," Ciara contradicted him. "It means I can't trust you, Tripp. It means you're a liar, Tripp. It means all you care about is getting laid, Tripp."

"I care about you. I **SAID** I'd wait for you. And you think you can't trust **ME** , but you **CAN** trust the guy who tried to burn you alive?" Tripp challenged.

Tripp insulting Ben was enough to make Ciara's already-white-hot anger flare even hotter, but then Tripp made an even bigger mistake: he got up in Ciara's personal space and put his hands on her shoulders.

Two things happened in that instant: Ciara remembered Ben telling her numerous times, "I will never hurt you."

And when Tripp tried to pull Ciara closer to him, after getting his hands on her shoulders, she kicked him right in the balls, sending him falling to the floor, writhing in pain with his hands covering his groin.

"You know what, Claire? You honestly deserve better than Tripp, but if he's who you want, then good luck to you. I think you'll need it," Ciara said, looking from her niece to Tripp. "In case it isn't obvious to you, Tripp, **WE ARE OVER. DONE. NEVER, EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER.** "

Ciara had then slammed out of the loft, jumped on her bike, and headed straight for the police station. She was surprised to see her brother sitting at a desk outside the interrogation room where she had last seen Ben just a short time ago, and she was even more surprised to see the pensive look on Shawn's face.

She stopped in front of Shawn uncertainly, but it only took a few seconds for Shawn to register his sister's presence, and he looked up at her. "Ciara," he said.

"Where's Mom?" Ciara asked.

"In her office with Rafe," Shawn said. He sighed. "I've talked to Ben."

Ciara frowned. "Shawn, Ben did **not** try to kill me! He-"

Shawn interrupted Ciara's attempt at a tirade in defense of Ben with two quiet, solemn words. "I know."

Now Ciara looked at Shawn in shock. "You know?" she repeated.

"I talked to him," Shawn repeated. "He's adamant that Mom set him up...and I believe him."

Ciara's shock only increased. "You do?" she asked.

" **You** believe him," Shawn pointed out. "It's why you came back. That, and you're crazy about him."

"I..." She stopped.

Shawn just smiled briefly. "I know The Look, sis. I've seen it in the mirror. And I saw it enough times on Dad...and on Mom." Shawn's smile went away as quickly as if a light switch had been flipped. "I can't condone or defend Mom setting Ben up. Rafe believes Mom is setting Ben up too. I think he's trying to get through to her in there, but I doubt he'll get very far with her. When he's done, I'm gonna try and get her to see that this isn't the way." He paused a beat, then said, "Mom's way out of line, but you _**do**_ understand she's only doing this because she loves you so much, right? She hasn't really dealt with losing Dad. Hell, she hasn't really dealt with losing Zack. I think if they were still here, she'd be...herself."

"I know that Mom loves me," Ciara said. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss Dad too, and I've always regretted that I never got to know Zack."

"I wish you could've known Zack too," Shawn said wistfully. "Mom just can't handle another loss. But she's so busy trying to protect you that she's not seeing that she's pushing you away. I'll try to get through to her, but I can't promise that I'll get anywhere with her."

"It's enough that you're gonna try, Shawn," Ciara said. "And you believing Ben...Thank you for that."

"The man has a valid point," Shawn replied. "Weeks after the fire, a can of accelerant with a partial fingerprint matching Ben's turns up at the cabin? And the only person around to find this can of accelerant is Mom? Mom, who has access to Ben's prints on file here at the station? And this happens _**after**_ he moves in with you?"

"Exactly!" Ciara exclaimed. "I parked out back, so I'd really appreciate it if you could try not to let Mom know I'm here to see Ben again."

Ciara was about to go into the interrogation room when Shawn saying her name stopped her. When she turned back to look at him, his hand, holding a small key, was stretched out towards her. "These are the keys to Ben's handcuffs," Shawn said. "He told me how he fixed Dad's bike for you."

Ciara took the keys from Shawn. "Are you-" she started to say.

"Hey, Sami's my sister-in-law," Shawn reminded Ciara. "She's only had about five thousand chances in the last twenty-five years whenever she's screwed up. She's getting another one now, after having shot her own mother at her wedding, even though it was an accident that probably wouldn't have happened if Eric hadn't jumped on her when she was drugged and holding a loaded gun. Anyway, there's nothing legitimate in the way of evidence to keep Ben here, so why don't you take him home?"

As Ciara accepted the key from Shawn, she thought, _Forgive me, Shawn, but Ben and I can't_ _ **go**_ _home. Tripp is there, and that's the first place Mom will look when she realizes you let us go._

"Thank you, Shawn," she said, leaning in to give her big brother a quick hug.

Shawn hugged Ciara back. "I trust you, Ciara. And I've warned Ben exactly what I'll do to him if he ever steps out of line with you in _**any**_ way." He drew back and looked at his not-so-little sister. "Just be careful. And stay in touch with me, okay? Anything you tell me will stay with me—not Mom, not Belle, no one else will know. It'll just be between us, I promise."

"Thank you," she told him again. "And we'll be careful, I promise. And yes, I'll call you."

Ciara then walked into the interrogation room, and Ben's face lit with joy that gave way to surprise. "Ciara," he said. After she had left earlier, he really thought her mother had done such a number on her that she was convinced of his guilt, that chances were high that he would never see her again. But here she was, his own personal avenging angel.

Ciara rounded the table and, using the keys Shawn had given her, let Ben out of his handcuffs. "Did you swipe these from your mom's office?" Ben asked, looking toward the door, half expecting Hope to burst in with her gun drawn in the next two seconds.

"My brother gave them to me to release you," Ciara said. Then she framed Ben's face in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. "Ben, I am so sorry. I am so, **so** sorry. You have told me over and over again that you'll never hurt me. And I listened to my mother, when I should have been listening to you, and more importantly, when I should have been listening to my heart, and to my gut. I **know** you didn't set that fire, because I know **you.** And not only have you told me over and over again that you'll never hurt me, but I know that you've never lied to me, and almost everyone else in my life has. Claire did, up until today. Tripp did, over and over again. My mom is, over and over again. But not you. Never you."

"Words don't mean much to most people," Ben replied, "but they mean a lot to me. And I really only ever got the words I needed when I needed them from Jordan, and from our mom before she died. But actions mean just as much, at least to me. My past actions are something I'm gonna have to live with for the rest of my life. I'm ashamed of them. I regret them. But I can't change them. So when I say something, I'm telling the God's honest truth. And I am never going to do the kinds of things that I did to Will, and to Paige, and to Serena and Wendy, ever again, Ciara, I swear it. And your actions...You've stood by me and helped me like no one in my life with the exception of my sister. And if you trust me-"

"Ben, I **do** trust you. With my life," Ciara interrupted.

"If you trust me," Ben repeated, covering Ciara's hands on his cheeks with his own, "I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to make sure I deserve it."

"Shawn said I can take you home now," Ciara said, "but we're not going home."

Ben's face darkened. "Did you walk in on Tripp and Claire naked again?" he asked, mentally replaying what she had said just a moment ago about Tripp lying to her over and over, and Claire lying to her until today.

"No, I was at least spared that, but he had his tongue down her throat, and was about to undo her bra through her dress," Ciara replied. "It was the wake-up call I needed. Tripp doesn't want **me.** He just wants sex. He's never going to see me as anything but damaged goods. And I'm not some trophy for him to win over you, or the woman he's going to be with after he gets bored with screwing Claire."

Ben gently removed Ciara's hands from his face, but held her hands in his. "Ciara, Tripp's wrong. You are _**not**_ damaged goods. Not to me," he said firmly.

"That's all that matters," Ciara replied. She pulled Ben to his feet. "Anyway, Shawn said I should take you home, but instead of going home, we're going to my Great-Aunt Maggie's farm. It's just outside of town, and she never goes there anymore since she married my Grandpa Vic, but the place has a caretaker. We'll stay there tonight, and then head out in the morning. Until we can get definite proof for the D.A. that you didn't set the fire, or until Mayor Carver removes my mother as Police Commissioner, we've got to be anywhere but here."

"I would follow you to Hell and back, Ciara," Ben said, "but your mom's gonna put out an APB as soon as she realizes we've taken off."

"Well, Shawn will be trying to keep it from coming to that, and if I have to, I'll get Grandpa Vic involved," Ciara said. "Come on, we've gotta get out of here before my mom leaves her office."

Ciara and Ben emerged from the interrogation room. They gave Shawn back the handcuffs and the keys. "Thank you," Ben told Shawn. "I feel like I should say something more, but 'Thank you' is all I've got."

"Just remember what I told you, be good to my sister, and we're good," Shawn said. He looked at Ciara again. "Be careful," he repeated.

"We will," Ciara promised.

Then she and Ben ducked out the back of the police station to her waiting bike. She handed Ben his helmet, donned her own, and then they were off.

Hope was furious when she learned that Ciara and Ben had taken off together, and that Shawn had let them, and while mother and son were arguing, Rafe called Abe, who immediately came to the police station. By the time he left, he had Hope's badge and gun with him, and Eli had been promoted to Interim Police Commissioner pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation into Hope's actions regarding Ben Weston's latest arrest.

Ciara texted Shawn late that night to let him know that she and Ben were safe. Shawn, having gone to the loft himself, knew they weren't home, but all he texted back was, "Mom's being investigated by IA. No APBs on you two. Stay safe and stay in touch."

Ciara kept the promise she made to Shawn-Douglas that she and Ben would stay safe, and that she would stay in touch with him. But it would be several weeks before Ciara and Ben returned to Salem.


	5. To Catch a Claire

_**Long time no write. Life gets in the way sometimes, and writer's block has always been one of my worst enemies. But I'm giving this one-shot a shot. It's my take on the final showdown with Claire at the cabin, so it was written quickly, to be posted before the actual canon scenes air starting Monday, July 1, 2019, and it includes a lot more people at the cabin than are actually going to be there.**_

 _ **I have to thank Russ and Danielle Renee, for encouraging me to write. Again, I'm not sure how good this is going to be, but I'm giving it my best. And it's just a one-shot, detailing Claire finally getting caught, and the truth that Ben didn't set any fires finally being revealed to everyone.**_

* * *

Ciara's wrists were once again tied to the bedposts in the cabin. This was the second time it had happened in the last five months. First, with Jordan in February, and now with Claire in July.

Ben was right, Ciara silently reflected glumly. Making Claire jealous wasn't the best idea. Even now, Tripp might literally be paying for it with his life, as after shallowly cutting his throat with that big honking butcher knife, Claire had angrily, forcefully plunged it into his right shoulder and left it there before using the lit lighter to force Ciara into her car to take off with her to the cabin again.

Claire was pacing up and down, ranting and raving as she flicked the lighter on and off, and Ciara, a literal captive audience, was forced to listen. She had realized Claire was sick after Ben told her about the ringtone, and after she realized that Claire had then set the Horton Cabin on fire with Tripp and Haley inside, but until tonight, Ciara...actually, no one...had had any idea just how sick Claire was.

"It's always you!" Claire said to Ciara disgustedly. "Theo liked you better than he ever liked me."

Forcing herself to remain calm, Ciara said, "Theo and I grew up together. His mom and my mom were best friends until his mom died. Theo and I knew each other a lot longer than you and Theo knew each other."

"Excuses, excuses, you always have an excuse ready, don't you, Ciara?" Claire asked. Her hair and clothing were disheveled from her fight with Tripp at the loft, and the craziness in her eyes was palpable.

"Claire, what do you want from me?" Ciara finally asked. "I backed off of Theo after you stole him from me, but you can't seriously expect me to stop being friends with someone I've been friends with for, like, my entire life. You are the Face of Bella. And believe me, I will never be anything but friends with Tripp ever again."

"You didn't even care about the damn contest, and you won it!" Claire thundered, as if Ciara hadn't spoken at all. "You knew how much that contest meant to me, Ciara. But for you, it was just a lark. You just entered it for shits and giggles. That contest was everything in the world to me, and you knew it!"

"Not at the time, I didn't!" Ciara said. "I know now, though."

Claire stepped closer to the bed, standing at Ciara's left side, and flicking the lighter open once more. "Everyone loves you," Claire spat. "Everyone wants you. Perfect Ciara. My own father even told me not to make trouble for you!"

Ciara hadn't known about that. "I'm just Shawn's sister. You're his daughter. He loves you, Claire, I know he does."

"Not enough!" Claire screamed. "It's never enough! I'M never enough! But you, Perfect Ciara, you're always enough for everybody! I am so **SICK** of everyone thinking you're perfect!"

"You obviously haven't talked to my mom or Grandma Julie lately because they certainly don't think I'm perfect. **I** know I'm not perfect," Ciara said, feeling her heart pound rapidly as Claire waved the lit lighter back and forth.

"Ben thinks you're perfect," Claire said. "It's sickening. I would have done anything for Tripp, anything at all, to make him love me the way Ben loves you, to make him look at me the way Ben has always looked at you. But you were in the way. As long as you're in the way, no one is **EVER** going to love me the way I deserve to be loved, damn it!"

Outside the cabin, Ben, Marlena, Hope, and John had just arrived at the same time, and with the window open, they all heard what Claire said about no one ever loving her the way she deserved to be loved as long as Ciara was in the way.

Ben looked at Marlena worriedly. "Dr. Evans," he said, half prayer, half plea.

Marlena looked over at John for a moment before meeting Ben's gaze again. "We will get Ciara out of there, Ben, I promise."

Hope stood silently, her mind reeling not only at what she had just heard, but also at the knowledge that Ben Weston had been telling the truth the entire time: he hadn't set any fires. All along, it had been Claire. Ciara had believed Ben's innocence, except for the brief time that Hope and Tripp had gotten into her head and made her doubt Ben, from the start, and Ciara had been right about him, while the rest of them had been wrong.

Now Tripp was in surgery at University Hospital, having the butcher knife Claire had plunged into his shoulder removed and the superficial wounds from the same knife across his throat tended to, while Claire was holding Ciara hostage at the same cabin where she and Rafe had rescued Ciara from the fire Claire set a year ago...the same cabin that Hope and Ted Laurent had found Ciara and Ben outside of after Ben saved Ciara again when Jordan had set the cabin ablaze and left Ciara tied to the bed in there to die. And now it was happening again.

"Claire, you don't want to do this," Ciara said, and everyone outside could hear the tears in her voice. Ben's gut clenched, and Marlena put a hand to her mouth as John put an arm around her shoulders. "Think of my mom! She already lost my dad, and Zack. If you kill me, you'll be making her lose another child. You don't want her to suffer like that, do you?"

"I'm tired of being the only one suffering!" Claire snapped. "You have to be dead and gone, Ciara. That's the only way my life will mean anything to anyone!" She started to lean over Ciara, ready to set the rope binding her left wrist to the bedpost on fire, when the door flew open, having been kicked down by Ben, who rushed into the cabin with Marlena, John, and Hope right on his heels.

"Oh, Claire," Marlena said softly, regretfully. She hadn't doubted Ben for a second since he had told her, apologetically, that Claire was the one who had set the original cabin fire last summer that could have killed Ciara, and the more recent cabin fire on Smith Island which could have killed Tripp Dalton and Haley Chen.

"Claire, put the lighter down," Ben said.

"What, so you can play hero again, Mr. Necktie Killer?" Claire said. "I don't think so! And damn Eve!"

"Eve? What does Eve have to do with this?" Hope asked, casting a worried glance at Ciara before focusing her attention on Claire.

"I made the mistake of trusting Eve when she said that nobody would ever know I was really the one who set the fires! She promised me that Ben would go away for them for a long time, and nobody would know it was really me. NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS IT WAS REALLY ME!" Claire exploded.

"Eve has known all along that you set the fires?" John asked. "Do I have that right?"

"YES!" Claire shouted. "And it was all for nothing!"

Hope bristled, realizing that Eve could have cost her the life of her only daughter, while Marlena and John exchanged a look that clearly said that they would be paying Eve a visit very soon to upbraid her for exploiting Claire for her own personal agenda when it should have been clear even to Eve that Claire obviously needed help.

Ben and Ciara's eyes met. Ben moved toward Ciara's right wrist, to start untying her from the bedpost, and Claire waved the lighter's flame near Ciara's left cheek. It took every ounce of Ciara's willpower not to scream or flinch. "Go ahead and untie her, Ben. I'll set her on fire if you loosen that rope just the slightest bit," Claire threatened.

"Claire," Marlena spoke up then, "we're right here for you. John and I...Hope...your parents...we all love you. All you had to do was come to us. We would have helped you. We want to help you now."

"Oh, yeah, because you guys have always been so available. Sami came back drugged out of her mind and nearly killed you at your wedding. Will had amnesia, then he got his memory back, then he got a brain tumor and almost died. Great-Grandma Caroline DID die. Paul was in a wheelchair and moved to San Francisco, and Grandpa had to go be with him when Will almost died because he was so traumatized. And you, Grandma Marlena, you keep seeing Ben Weston as a patient. Don't tell me you would have been there for me. You didn't have the time, because you, ALL of you, were so damn busy being there for somebody else! And you, Grandma Hope," Claire turned on Hope now, "so obsessed with nailing Ben for the fires and keeping him away from your perfect, precious daughter. Grandma Julie, telling Ben off and trying to get Ciara to turn her back on him. And my dad, so concerned that his perfect, precious sister is shacking up with the serial killer, while my mom was here long enough to try to pull Grandma Marlena's plug and couldn't even come back for Great-Grandma Caroline's funeral because she was busy with some case. I don't even make the list for any of you!"

"Claire, that is not true," Hope said.

"Don't lie to me!" Claire retorted.

While Claire had been telling off Marlena and Hope, John, not the focus of her attention during her rant, crept around Marlena and Hope and around the cabin until he was standing behind Claire without Claire knowing he was there. He wrapped one arm around her throat from behind, and with his other hand, he snatched the lighter from her, closed it, and then tossed it across the bed to Ben Weston, calling "Heads up!" as he did so. Ben caught the lighter, then turned and handed it to Hope, who was standing behind him. "Untie Ciara," John directed Ben. Ben wasted no time freeing Ciara from the bed. Her arms went around his neck as soon as her hands were free, and he lifted her to her feet, her arms still around him, as his arms went around her waist.

Just then, Eli burst through the door with four uniformed cops right behind him, all of them with their guns drawn. "What in the hell is going on?" he asked. "Dr. Johnson called 911 and said that Tripp Dalton had been stabbed through the shoulder and received superficial cuts to his throat with a butcher knife, and said the police needed to get out here immediately because Claire Brady had taken Ciara Brady hostage and was armed with a lighter?"

"That's the gist of it," Hope replied.

"One of you shoot me and put me out of my misery," Claire implored Eli and the uniforms. "It's all over. I'm not going to jail for any of this. I won't do it! You can't make me sit in a prison cell!"

Although she was no longer the Commissioner, Hope quietly said, "Detective Grant, Officers...holster your weapons."

Eli looked at Hope, confused. "Hold on here. Are you telling me that CLAIRE is the one who set the cabin ablaze on Smith Island?" he asked, shocked.

"Yes, I did!" Claire exclaimed defiantly. "And I sliced and stabbed Tripp with a butcher knife and left him on the floor of the loft to die, and I took Ciara hostage and brought her out here intending to finish what I started last summer when I found her here asleep with a broken leg while Ben was off getting his meds and set the cabin on fire to get rid of her because she is always ruining EVERYTHING for me!"

Eli and the uniformed officers silently holstered their weapons, but all of them were looking at Hope uncertainly.

Marlena spoke up then. "Ben, you and Hope take Ciara and get out of here."

"Oh, sure, Ciara wins again!" Claire exclaimed hatefully.

Safe in Ben's arms, Ciara looked at Claire sadly. "Claire, it's not about winning and losing," she said.

"Says the girl who gets everything she ever wanted," Claire shot back.

"No, Claire. I have never gotten everything I ever wanted!" Ciara snapped, her nerves stretched to the breaking point. "My dad is dead! I miss him every single day! Chase raped me! I certainly didn't want that! You think I have this charmed life, like I'm some Disney fairy tale princess or something? I hurt! I bleed! I've had my heart broken, my spirit broken, been disappointed!"

"Spare me," Claire spat. "Everybody has always loved you! The miracle baby, the golden girl! You ruin everything for me, Ciara. EVERYTHING!"

"Okay, I'm getting you out of here," Ben said quietly into Ciara's ear.

Ciara looked up at him, then looked over at her mother, who still looked shocked, and then at Marlena and John, who was still physically holding onto Claire. "Yeah," she whispered.

Eli's mind was spinning with the same disbelief that had engulfed Hope when she learned that Claire, and not Ben, was the real arsonist. Hope looked to Eli, and he and the uniformed officers moved out of the way. Ben and Ciara, arms around each other's waists, walked out of the cabin. Hope trailed after them, and then Eli and the uniformed officers came outside. The uniformed officers agreed to head back to the Cop Shop, leaving Eli standing outside the cabin with Hope, Ciara, and Ben.

Hope looked at Ciara. "Baby, why didn't you tell me that Claire set the fires?" she asked.

"Would you have believed me, Mom?" Ciara asked. But there was no snark, no anger, no defensiveness, just an honest question asked matter-of-factly. "If I had come to you and said that Ben, when Dr. Evans had him under hypnosis, remembered hearing music outside this cabin the night of the first fire last summer, and then when we were at the café a few weeks ago, he recognized the music he heard as Claire's ringtone, the one that she wrote herself, that no one else has, would you have believed me?"

Hope looked over at Ben, whose face was an impassive, blank mask. "No," Hope said sadly, but honestly. "No, I wouldn't have believed you. In fact, I would have gotten angry at Ben for having the audacity to try to say that Claire had done it."

Eli joined the conversation then. "So when I found you outside the burning Horton Cabin on Smith Island-" he started.

"Claire had already been and gone," Ben said. "Rory, that, that stoner buddy of JJ Deveraux's, I ran into him in the park. He had given Claire false passports for Haley and Tripp to get out of the country, and because he was higher than a kite, he didn't realize there was anything off about Claire. She offered to deliver the passports for him, and he agreed. If you can find him, maybe he'll remember."

"You don't need to find Rory," Ciara added then. "I found him, when I was looking for Ben. He said that Ben wanted to know where Claire had gone, and Rory told me that he had told Ben she was headed for Smith Island."

"You had the lighter in your hand," Eli reminded Ben.

"Wrapped in a handkerchief," Ben said. "Any fingerprints of mine that were on it, Eve Deveraux had to have transferred onto the surface of the lighter from my fingerprints on file at the Salem PD, because she knew that Claire set that fire."

"She knew that Claire set both fires," Ciara piped up. "Claire admitted that in there just a few minutes ago! And Eli, if you don't want to believe me, or Ben, then you can ask my mom, or Dr. Evans, or Mr. Black, because they all heard it too."

Eli's eyebrows shot up as he swung his gaze from Ciara and Ben to Hope. "It's true," Hope said. "Claire admitted everything. Ben didn't set the Horton Cabin on fire, and he didn't set this cabin on fire a year ago when he and Ciara were here after he found her after her motorcycle accident. Both times, it was Claire."

Eli looked at Ben then. "It looks like I owe you an apology, then, Weston."

Ciara opened her mouth to defend Ben, but before she could say anything, she heard her brother shouting, "MOM? MOM, ARE YOU OUT HERE?"

"Yes!" Hope shouted back. "Over here, Shawn!"

Shawn burst through the woods and into the clearing. "What the hell is going on? Aunt Kayla called me, said I needed to get out here right away because Claire needed me." When he saw Ciara standing in the circle of Ben's arms, the look on Shawn's face turned positively murderous. "YOU!" he roared. He took one step toward Ben with a clenched fist raised, and Ciara jumped in front of Ben, ready to defend him from her brother, but Hope surprised everyone when she jumped in front of Ciara.

"Shawn-Douglas Brady, drop that fist right now!" she commanded. Shawn, shocked at the way his mother was speaking to him, unclenched his fist and let his hand full to his side.

"But Ciara's with that-" Shawn started.

"Hero!" Ciara shouted. "And you better not say another word against Ben, Shawn. I mean it!"

Shawn looked at Hope as if Ciara was the one who needed psychiatric help. "What's going on?" he asked again.

Hope looked at Ciara and Ben before addressing Shawn. "You two go on. I'll call you later, Ciara." Ciara left Ben's arms to hug her mother. Hope gave Ciara an extra squeeze before Ciara stepped back. Hope then regarded Ben. "Ciara was right about you all along Ben," she said. "Somewhere along the way, I forgot what it was like to be young and in love and have disapproving parents...probably because it hurts too much for me to remember."

"Commish-Mrs. Brady," Ben said. "For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did. I hated having to tell Ciara...and Dr. Evans. They love Claire. So do you."

"What the hell do you know about my daughter?" Shawn demanded then.

Hope put an arm around her firstborn's shoulders. "Eli, I'm gonna be here for a while. Would you please take Ciara and Ben to the hospital so Ciara can get checked out, and then see that they get home, to the gatehouse on the DiMera Mansion property?"

"Sure," Eli agreed. Hope repeated her promise to call Ciara later before Ciara and Ben followed Eli to his unmarked police car. As they started walking to the car, they heard Hope say, "Shawn, we're going to go inside the cabin now, and Kayla was right. Claire **does** need you...and Belle, so you're going to have to call her and tell her to get a continuance for her court case and get here immediately."

The ride to the hospital was silent. Ciara and Ben sat in the back seat, her head on his shoulder, holding hands with their fingers intertwined the whole way. Kayla gave Ciara a quick once-over at the hospital, and assured both Ciara and Ben that Tripp, who had been sedated after the surgery to remove the butcher knife from his shoulder and repair the internal damage it caused, would be fine with a little physical therapy on that shoulder, and promised to check in with Hope the next day.

After the hospital, Eli drove Ciara and Ben home, to the gatehouse. They both thanked Eli, and as soon as Ben unlocked the front door, and ushered Ciara inside ahead of him, he quickly shut and locked the door, then turned to embrace Ciara only to have her launch herself at him. He caught her up in his arms, lifting her off the floor, and they just held each other tightly for a long moment.

Then Ben set Ciara on her feet and tucked her hair behind her ears. "When Dr. Evans and I walked into the loft and saw Tripp there on the floor with that big knife in his shoulder, bleeding all over the place, I was terrified, Ciara."

"Having a lighter wasn't the best idea," Ciara replied. "And I really didn't know how far gone Claire actually was until everything was happening. But you found me. Again."

"I will always find you, Ciara," Ben said earnestly. He took hold of her hand and placed it on his chest over his heart, then covered her hand with his own. "You and me...we're connected, right here." He nodded toward their covered hands over his heart. "We have been from the night I found you in the middle of the road after you wiped out on your dad's motorcycle."

"And I will always have your back," Ciara promised Ben. "The entire town owes you a major apology."

Ben smiled. "Take it easy there, Bobcat. If your mom stops trying to throw me in jail, and your Grandpa Victor doesn't try to have me rubbed out by the Greek Mafia, and your Grandma Julie doesn't look at me like dog poop on the bottom of a very expensive pair of her shoes-"

"They won't," Ciara said fiercely. "Not anymore!"

"The only one whose opinion matters to me is you," Ben replied. "You know that."

Ciara framed Ben's face in her hands, then stretched up to kiss him. The kiss lingered, and then Ciara pulled back just enough to rest her forehead against his. "I'm drained," she said.

"Me too," Ben replied.

"Hold me all night while we sleep?" Ciara asked, biting her lip.

"Definitely," Ben replied as they headed toward the bathroom to wash their faces and brush their teeth before they would get into pajamas and go to bed.


End file.
